Treaty on Open Skies

Overview

Potential Facility Impacts

Current Activities

Overview

Purpose and Background

The Treaty on Open Skies is intended to strengthen peace, stability, and security among the participating states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) by mandating cooperative observation flights over the territories of the States Parties. Through the establishment of these confidence and security-building measures, the Treaty promotes greater transparency and openness in military activities "from Vancouver to Vladivostok."

The Treaty was negotiated between the members of NATO and the former Warsaw Pact beginning in 1989. The Warsaw Pact dissolved during the talks, and the Treaty was signed on March 24, 1992, at the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Following the Treaty's entry into force (EIF) on January 1, 2002, any OSCE participating state not party to the Treaty may apply to the Open Skies Consultative Commission (OSCC), the Treaty's implementation organization, for consideration of their accession request.

Although the security environment has changed significantly since the Treaty on Open Skies was negotiated and signed, the Treaty continues to promote stability within the European security framework.

The First Review Conference was held on February 14-16, 2005, in Vienna. The attending States Parties reaffirmed the Treaty’s relevance to international security, and reviewed the guiding mechanisms established by the OSCC, as well as the OSCC Informal Working Groups assisting in Treaty implementation. The Second Review Conference will be held five years after the First, in 2010.

Potential Facility Impacts

Key Verification Measures

The Treaty on Open Skies provides States Parties with the right to fly over the entire territory of other States Parties to collect data using unarmed Open Skies aircraft equipped with treaty-compliant imaging sensors. These sensors include:

video cameras;
optical panoramic and framing cameras;
infrared line-scanning devices; and
sideways-looking synthetic aperture radar (SAR).

The observing party is obligated to provide a copy of the sensor data collected during the mission to the observed party. Other States Parties may purchase a copy of the data collected during any Open Skies mission. The amount of data available to each State Party is, therefore, much greater than the amount of data they are able to collect individually.

The number of observation flights a State Party may fly over other States Parties is limited by quotas established by the Treaty. This quota is known as a party’s “active quota.” This number will be equal to a State Party’s "passive quota," which is the number of observation missions a party is obligated to receive over its own territory.

The United States' passive quota is up to 42 observation flights each year. However, any individual State Party may not use more than 50 percent of their quotas over a single State Party.

Within the States Parties' quota limitations and obligations, the observed party has no right of refusal and may not restrict observation flights for national security reasons. Flights may only be restricted for legitimate reasons that are specifically identified in the Treaty.

The observing party is required to give at least 72 hours advance notice of their estimated time of arrival at a point of entry (POE). The observed party may conduct a pre-flight inspection of the Open Skies aircraft at the POE to verify that all equipment and sensors meet treaty specifications.

The parties will also negotiate the mission plan, which specifies the flight path the observation aircraft will follow. The Open Skies mission is required to be completed within 96 hours after the estimated time of arrival.

Individual sites and facilities in the United States wishing to be notified of impending overflights may subscribe to the Open Skies advance notification system—the Passive Overflight Module/Telephone Notification System (POM/TNS). This is a free service maintained by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). To subscribe, sites need to provide only general information about their facility, such as the name of the facility, a point of contact, phone numbers, and locational data, including latitude, longitude, elevation and geographic orientation.

To subscribe to the POM/TNS notification system, contact your U.S. Government sponsor, local Defense Security Service representative or the Open Skies Division at DTRA by calling 1-703-767-0802. An Open Skies Data Management Facility registration form will be sent to you.

Current Activities

Recent Developments

As of May 18, 2009, over 530 observation mission flights have been flown under the Treaty. The 500th flight was a Benelux flight over Bosnia and Herzegovina on August 20, 2008, with observers from Canada, Norway and the Czech Republic on board.

Until 2008, only Russia had expressed a desire to fly over the United States. Russia flew four observation missions per year over the United States in 2007 and 2006, and two per year in 2005 and 2004. In 2008, as of September, Russia had flown four observation missions over the United States. During the second flight, Swedish representatives accompanied the Russian flight crew, making Sweden the only other country besides Russia to overfly the United States.

Russia’s Open Skies aircraft is a TU-154. This plane has been certified according to Treaty provisions and is equipped with optical cameras. The United States receives a copy of the imagery collected during each mission and a U.S. escort team from DTRA accompanies the Russian team onboard and throughout each mission. The Russian team negotiates the mission route and, as the observing Party, may image any point on U.S. territory along the agreed flight path.

To date, the United States has conducted inspection flights over Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine. Since 2002, the United States has flown fifty-nine active observation missions. Fifty-three of those flights were over Russia, and of those 53 flights, twenty-four were joint flights with other countries, including countries such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

As of September 2008, the United States participated in thirteen observation flights during the year, twelve of which were over Russia and one over Ukraine. In addition to mission flights, the United States continues to participate in joint training flights (JTFs).

Russia and other European States Parties continue to fly missions over each others' territory. A complete list of all Open Skies missions performed since the Treaty entered into force is available on the Treaty Information Center’s Treaty on Open Skies Fact Sheet.